This invention relates to improvements in bulk containers, and more particularly, to seamless tubular fabric bulk containers for facilitating the transport of milk powder for human consumption, or any other flowable powders or grains, including animal feed or grain, from a commercial manufacturer or grain silo to the farm and for facilitating the feeding of farm animals.
Modem materials handling systems for milk powder for human consumption, or any other flowable powders or grains, including animal feed or grain, are chosen for a variety of reasons, most having to do with costs. Whether it is minimizing the amount of physical labor by workers, speeding the manufacturing process, or reducing handling costs and wasted product during shipment, storage, and eventual use by the farmer or consumer, an attempt is made to cut costs. In the case of milk powder for human consumption or agricultural feed products the bulk container for use in the packaging of the product can help to cut these costs.
A bulk container for products must provide certain advantages to its users including streamlining the processes associated with the packaging and warehousing of products for the manufacturers, simplifying the handling of products for those persons responsible for transporting the products, and improving the ease of handling, storage, and use of the products by the farmer or consumer. The bulk container also must provide for the product to arrive at the farmer or consumer intact, and there should be no loss of the product due to damage or infestation by mold, vermin, or contamination by other environmental concerns. Therefore, the design of a bulk container for such product must take into account the method for handling the bulk container at each step of the life cycle of the product to ensure that the handling process is cost effective and that the product that reaches the farmer or consumer is of the highest quality.
Farmers are the ultimate users of the animal feed products and historically have used animal feed products in loose form, or in relatively small and easy to handle containers such as burlap or paper bags. These historical methods involved higher handling and storage costs, and the prepared animal feed products often were susceptible to contamination, waste, and poor controls over quality and quantity used. For example, farmers historically have used loose feed stored in silos or other out buildings for feeding animals, and this required extensive labor to distribute the feed to the point of use, e.g., to the barn or point of feeding, it was prone to spillage and waste during transport from the storage location to the point of use, and while in storage the loose feed often suffered contamination from mold, vermin, or other environmental concerns. Historically, farmers also have used animal feed products that were distributed by the production facility in burlap or paper bags. These bags also presented storage and handling problems, they added to the cost of the farming operation, and these bags were subject to contamination from mold, vermin, or other environmental concerns. Farmers have also used and they continue to use other methods for handling prepared animal feed in various forms of packages and in loose form, and the problems associated with these other methods are similar to, and have already been illustrated by, the foregoing.
In agriculturally progressive areas, such as Japan, the United States, Canada, and many parts of Europe, modern agriculture has become big business, and the farmer is more and more a manager, running a business, which may be part of a huge corporation. The goal of the farmer is the same as for any businessman: to maximize profits. The farmer must be alert to government regulations and health standards governing feeding of animals used in the human food chain, and he must be aware of the newest feed handling and storage methods, their compliance with the health regulations, and their cost advantages. The design of a bulk container used for animal feed plays an important part in the overall success of an agribusiness, because it affects the cost of managing the feeding process, the quality of the feed, compliance with health regulations, and the amount of production realized in the animals. The advent of bulk containers for packaging animal feed products provides the modern farmer with a greater number of controls over feeding costs than farmers have historically had available to them.
The instant invention overcomes the shortcomings of existing methods and devices used for packaging, transporting, storing and using milk powder for human consumption, or any other flowable powders or grains, including animal feed or grain, from a commercial manufacturer or grain silo to the farm and for facilitating the feeding of farm animals. This invention is an improved bulk container that features four sides that comprise a seamless tubular fabric vertical member sewn to a bottom and a top. The seamless vertical member prevents contamination of the animal feed product from foreign material entering through a vertical seam. The top is fitted with a top spout including a tie-off for filling and sealing the bulk container, and the bottom is fitted with a discharge porthole covered by a porthole cover that is sewn into the fabric. A movable bottom cover is attached in a hinge like fashion at one of its edges to the bottom, where the bottom and the vertical member are sewn together. The bottom cover is reinforced and it can be secured in the closed position for transport and storage of the bulk container. When the bulk container is positioned in the feeding area the bottom cover can be opened to expose the porthole cover, and the porthole cover can be perforated to allow the feed material to flow by gravity and be released for feeding. Four lifting rings are attached near the top of the vertical member for lifting the bulk container.
The design of the present invention provides for integral strength of the fully loaded bulk container by calling for the construction of the vertical member to include seamless construction and vertical reinforcement areas that are integrated into the sides and oriented in the vertical dimension of the vertical member. The seamless design of the vertical member provides for greater structural integrity preventing the intrusion of dirt, pests, moisture, and other environmental concerns into the feed products during transportation and storage. The design also requires that the free ends of the lifting rings be oriented so that they overlap the vertical reinforcement areas. The design of the bulk container further calls for these components to be linked together by a reinforcing member that is affixed near the top of the vertical member and oriented perpendicularly to the reinforcement areas and the free ends of the lifting rings. The lifting rings provide a stable means for securing the bulk container during filling, and they can be used to lift the bulk container, e.g., with a fork lift or crane in the manufacturing facility or with a tractor on the farm.
The design of the present invention takes into account the method for handling the bulk container at each step of the life cycle of the animal feed product to ensure that the handling process is cost effective and that the product that reaches the farmer is of the highest quality. This handling equipment can be categorized as working over short distances or as working over long distances. For example, such equipment designed for use over short distances includes equipment for handling the bulk containers of animal feed inside the plant, equipment for loading and unloading the bulk containers before and after transport, and equipment used by the farmer for storing, handling and using the bulk feed packages. Among the variety of industrial vehicles used for the handling of bulk feed packages are trucks, tractors, forklifts, cranes and hoists for vertical and horizontal movement, and elevators for solely vertical movement. Long-distance equipment includes land, sea, and air-transport vehicles and includes automobiles, semi-trucks, trailers, and rail cars, self-propelled ships of all sizes, and various forms of air transportation. The design of the bulk container chosen dictates the preferred method of transport over long and short distances, and this can ultimately add to the cost of the animal feed to the farmer.
The handling of animal feed can be a costly and time intensive component of the operation of an agricultural business. Therefore, the design of a bulk container for animal feed must take into account the cost of handling animal feed products once they reach the farm where the feed is used. Similarly, the design of a bulk container for animal feed can affect the quality of the animal feed. Therefore, the costs realized by a farmer for feeding his animals can depend in large part on the design of the bulk container chosen for the animal feed product.
The object of the present invention is to provide the modem commercial animal feed processor, grain silo operator, and the farmer with a pre-packaged bulk container for animal feed designed around materials management principles to provide a cost effective means for packaging, transporting, storing, and using animal feed products, and to describe a design that will overcome the problems and reduce the costs historically associated with loose and prepackaged animal feed products. A further object of the present invention is to provide a bulk container that is large enough to reduce the time and expense associated with handling smaller burlap or paper containers. A further object of the present invention is to provide a bulk container that is capable of being lifted and moved with the type of equipment typically found on the modem farm, e.g., it is strong enough to be lifted with a forklift or a tractor based implement. A further object of the present invention is to provide a bulk container that is made of woven fabrics and that is assembled so that the bulk container will keep the animal feed clean, and free from infestation by molds, vermin, and other environmental concerns. A further object of the present invention is to provide an improvement in bulk containers, and more particularly, to seamless tubular fabric bulk containers for facilitating the transport of animal feed from a commercial manufacturer or grain silo to the farm and for facilitating the feeding of farm animals. Thus, a further object of the present invention is to provide the modem producer of animal feed products and the farmer with a bulk container for animal feed products that costs less to use and that provides animal feed that is of the highest quality.